Two weeks to go to my CNY 2014 trip to China

Yes. Let the countdown begins. It is now only two more weeks to go before the Chinese New Year, and most importantly, before my annual CNY family trip to oversea. This year, the country we selected is China (my dad’s favourite), and the place we would be heading to is Yunnan, famously known as the Shangri-La. We have purchased the trip during our visit to MATTA Fair few months ago on which every travel companies usually offered trips at lower price. Finally, the trip is now just around the corner after we have waited so long.

This coming trip costs us RM4500+ per pax. Even trip to China nowadays costs so much already. And four of us would be going on this trip beginning on the second day of Chinese New Year on 1st February 2014. Hence, we are still here in Malaysia on the first day of CNY. We have long not been at home on first day of CNY every year. This time, I think we will spend the day watching movie, visiting some relatives, getting some angpows first, and do last-minute preparation for the trip. This trip will takes 8 days and 7 nights, and we would be flying by AirAsia. I prefer Malaysia Airlines due to bigger space, better service and comfy airport, but too bad, our travel agency only had AirAsia for us. It’s okay since the flight would be only taking about 4 hours. Not that long.

This would be my third time visiting China. The first time was in 2006, when we went to Hong Kong and Shenzhen. That was actually my first time boarding a plane too. The second time was in 2009, when we head to Beijing, a year after the 2008 Olympics. Since my dad missed China so much (I also don’t know why) and it has already been five years since we last visited the country, we were all agreed to return to China this year. And as for our previous trips in the past year of which we usually went to mostly built places (all man-made stuff and built environment), this time we opt for different experience. We seek natural beauty now.

Yunnan is famous for being a place wonderful in nature, thus giving its nickname as the Shangri-La. Eventhough the beauty of the place may not be the best in winter (the current season), but we have no other choice as my dad can only be free this long during the Chinese New year break for a trip. This trip will provides us a getaway from the hustle and bustle of city’s life, and relaxes our mind with the picturesque nature Yunnan can offer. It is not a famous mega-city, but a place quite secluded, untouched or unharmed by the negative effect of rapid globalization nowadays. According to the itinerary provided to us, we would be visiting mostly natural wonders like forest, caves, lake, national park, mountains, river and valley. Other additional places including the Dinosaur Valley (a museum of dinosaur’s fossils), ancient town and streets, monastery and temple. The picture below shows a sight we would see hopefully on this coming trip:

Few days later, I think I’m going to start preparing to pack for the trip. And also time to apply for a number of annual leave. Hmm…CNY mood is here. Holiday mood is here. My mind flies to China already. Now, I’m a bit worried of some things associated with China, like the very filthy and smelly toilets, rude behaviour of the locals, and huge number of people crowding tourist’s destinations, thus making it very hard to take photograph and to enjoy the places. I also had a bit of concern of the freezing temperature there (it’s winter now), but wait, maybe I can see snowfall again. Nevertheless, I’m still looking forward to this trip which will commence in a fortnight.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)